syncopated.

scanned pics

the way to get to the top...

...is to get off your bottom.

some scanned pics...

life is not a problem to be solved...

...but rather a gift to be enjoyed.

smart people speak from experience...

...smarter people, from experience,
don't speak.

... for he who restrains his lips is wise.

Strummed at 9:15 PM (x)

dizzy up the girl

dizzy up the girl

mrs fanny tan like totally screwed up her 'briefing' on friday... as if we were little kids like that... i think we have all seen enough propaganda to differentiate between honesty and bullshit. in any case, the survey was really nothing. nothing to kick up a fuss about.

and so you lose all of the little respect you had before.

. . .

tried to fix the powerpack on sunday (quite lag hor, fix after having it for week...). went earlier, fitted the deck fittings. turned out to be the easiest task.

the instructions for fitting the vang, cunningham and outhaul were quite screwed lah.

a sample...:

(black & white pic of "things you will require". this includes ropes, pulleys laid out on the deck.)

"tie red rope to pulley with dead end knot.

put other end of rope around boom, tie bowline around boom"

for added information, there about 4 different red ropes, each of seemingly different lengths and material. about 3 different types of pulleys. and which part of the boom you talking about? bloody hell.

maxi had told me it would be a 20 min job. i also thought follow instructions can already, no problem. in the end cai had to stay back with me to help improvise some sort of outhaul system. i launched about 230...

so anyway. more important stuff.

list of things to do:

get
- clew tie
- shackle
- new trolley

mark powerpack ropes to show where to tie the handle. make sure it allows the sheets to me fully released. spent almost the whole day on the water trying to get the right length.

buy harken powerpack from tim ross? so many pple are saying the xd one is not as good. see how first.

and finally,

sue xd for lousy instructions and lack of pulleys. demand 500 dollars.

Shining like a diamond, rolling with the dice,
Standing on the ledge, show the wind how to fly.
When the world gets in my face,
I say, Have A Nice Day. 

i just suddenly thought...

what if i could design a boat with an adjustable mast rake?

i'm not talking about the pathetic optimist thing where you bend down into the bow to screw for 5 minutes.

i'm thinking of a dinghy with a sail as dynamic and mobile as that of a windsurfer. so much that the 'universal mast rake' becomes the main part of the boat. it is used to depower the sail, change the draft, position the centre of effort, etc.

would be cool. but a bit farfetched la.

. . .

my parents will be celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary soon. and i have to give a speech for them... any ideas?

i've thought of a few lines...

"... after all these nice words, i'm sure i have a right to ask for a raise in my allowance."

should be interesting.

smitten.

Strummed at 10:09 PM (x)

lotr quotes

'I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!' - Frodo


i was just looking through the wikiquotes from lotr. quite meaningful.


"'Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.'
'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.
'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'" - on discovering the identity of the ring



"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king." - of aragorn



"Speak "Friend"and enter." - entering Moria



"'I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We're in one, or course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: "Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring! " And they'll say: "Yes, that's one of my favourite stories. Frodo was very brave. wasn't he, dad?" "Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits, and that's saying a lot."'

'To hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you've left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. "I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn't they put in more of his talk, dad? That's what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam, would he, dad?"'

'We're going on a bit too fast. You and I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story, and it is all too likely that some will say at this point: "Shut the book now, dad; we don't want to read any more."'

'Things done and over and made into part of the great tales are different. Why, even Gollum might be good in a tale, better than he is to have by you, anyway.'

'I wonder if he thinks he's the hero or the villain?'" - the stairs of Cirith Ungol


"'Eowyn, do you not love me, or will you not?'
'I wished to be loved by another,' she answered. 'But I desire no man's pity.' "
"Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Eowyn! But I do not offer you my pity. For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you."

Strummed at 8:49 PM (x)

occupational interests

There's a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
'cause you know sometimes
Words have two meanings

In the tree by the brook
There's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

i leant to play that on the piano last year... da da dum dum dum...

occupational interests

where will these people be 20 years from now...?

for pc, we had to do this survey to "help you in choosing a career or course of study... it contains brief descriptions of activities performed in many different types of work."

And it's whispered that soon
If we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason

And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forest will echo with laughter

And it makes me wonder

so there are things like "exercise animals at a kennel or a stable", "be responsible for recruiting and rejecting staff", "collect and study different forms of marine life" and so on. 108 choices.

the result was that i scored highest under the panel 'scientific/investigative'. as was kwong, benlay and aaron(i think). i think it's quite accurate...

here's the description:

"people who's interests lie in scientific exploration and discovery. they generally enjoy puzzling out why or how things occur or work and see themselves as inquisitive, serious, independent, and scholarly. they score high on measures of self-esteem, and attach much value to honesty. they like to be in control of knowledge and understanding and often solve problems by careful research into all the available options. their preferred working environments are usually in the fields of scientific or medical research. the stereotyped media image is usually an eccentric scientist who, having analysed the evidence very carefully, proceeds to baffle everyone with theory."

haha, i like that last line. anyway, sounds good to me. i find research fascinating - i do want to do something of the sort in the future.

but how would i get there? how do i climb up that ladder?

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow
Don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May Queen
Yes there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on

Your head is humming and it won't go
Because you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady can't you hear the wind blow
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind

. . .

got my powerpack on sunday:)

actually got to use it when i exchanged boats with cai weiguo. like damn easy to use... downhaul so shiok haha. dunno why he go so slow though...

cai was telling me how black dog aka zhichao, max, ren and him had been at a lan shop together and had gone blog-surfing - they went to all the sailors' blogs and posted things like "yo ____(insert blog owner's name) wassup. you suck." like nothing better to do issit...

anyway, sailing is damn bloody fun.

. . .

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our souls
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll...

Strummed at 2:56 PM (x)

short post

here cute little kitty... come here...

greg. i don't know how long you thought you could have kept the truth. i'm disappointed...

work is mounting, mounting.

griselda is in the same school as my cousin. my other cousin is in the same class as some other byte sailor. the world is too small...

liquid tension experiment is an uber cool instrumental band. thx to shane for that one. oh ya, 'the who' deserves mention in the cool band names post.

Love will lead us, alright
Love will lead us, she will lead us
Can you hear the dolphin's cry?
See the road rise up to meet us
It's in the air we breathe tonight
Love will lead us, she will lead us

Life is like a shooting star
It don't matter who you are
If you only run for cover, it's just a waste of time
We are lost 'til we are found
This phoenix rises up from the ground
And all these wars are over

Strummed at 9:16 PM (x)

o lvl chinese

ignoring the words of your obnoxious little brother
kill or be killed spilled the words from your mother
I'll lay awake for a while
I'll leave the light on a while

you couldn't last a lifetime
caught between here and the days of it
carving her name across your arm
with every wish it's hit or miss her
I told you so
I measure distance in lines
departing the rest of my life

all lyrics from
the light & the glass
coheed & cambria

. . .

people talking. people of the future, laughing. men-to-be.

but you could feel an underlying anxiety - the air was tense.

then the teacher walked in. the scene changed in seconds; it was as if the clock had gone backwards several years. they were suddenly boys again, kids. some had fear etched across their faces, some buried their heads in their arms.

your focus secure and the loves you left well
smiles staged in photographs here until...

the results were read out, slowly, deliberately. with every utter, there was a corresponding response of emotion from the respective student. the few important moments passed.

there was a cluster of boys in the center of the class. they huddled, rejoiced, laughed with joy. and i was among them... we had been the borderline cases.

. . .

kill or be killed spilled the words from your mother

in his own corner, another close friend of mine let out a wail of despair.

. . .

ok, so i got a C6 for chinese. i've been struggling with chinese for ages, i'm happy with a pass.

but what i really fail to comprehend is how i managed an U in oral. how is that possible? my friend's friend is a teacher; he says that you only get an U when you go up to the teacher and not speak chinese/ scold vulgarities/ basically screw up totally. i'm damn bloody sure i didn't do that.

maurice got a pass in oral. when the teacher had asked him one of those set qns, he had rambled on without really knowing the qn. then the teacher asked...

ni zhi bu zhi dao wen ti ma?

maurice said, wo bu zhi dao. and they all had a good laugh together. and he got a pass! wtf.

anyway, my tuition teacher wants me to work my ass off for the rest of the year and retake my 'o's all the same. she says if i slack then next year my chinese will be even worse, so must keep pushing. still damn confused, our school teachers like damn blur one, still don't know whether got chinese ib exam, what format, what counts in final results, whether chinese class will split.

a lot of people care obviously. thx to eliz and a host of other pple. they all say, oh, china will be damn powerful in the future, must have good chinese to survive. mom says it's good to have a 2nd language, you are too one-dimensional (hans! lol.). points to angmohs speaking fluent chinese.

and i say wth, i don't think i should have to do something against my will. yes, i see the point, china going to be all-mighty and everything. but i still believe that i will be able to do well in life without it. all i want is to be able to converse with the hawker for my noodles, to tell the taxi driver where i'm going - i do not need to be able to spout four-word phrases and be philosophical in chinese, english suits me just fine for that.

as for being one-dimensional - i can sail for the country. i believe i can do well in chem, physics, maths. i think my english is of quite a high standard. i can play the piano to some extent - just hate the practising bit. just happy to be able to play any tune that comes to my head.

and that is not the only problem.

i still don't know much about the training trip in australia. if only laser go will be how sian la. then it cuts into the last week of term 3, so many assignment deadlines. and if i can't decide fast enough, even more problems - my passport pic how old, look like primary kid like that, twice the immigrations stop me already lol.

to think that spiderman is oh-so correct. with great power comes great responsibility. to think that, having surpassed my own expectations in both my academic results (how about 38/40 for a.maths and 35/40 for c. maths last year? 33/35 for physics? just chinese suck only...) and sailing, i now have more problems than before.

imagine if i had done worse. i would perhaps be worse off, but with less problems, less expectations.

this is a very unique situation i'm in. i want to pull through. i think in time this will be something i can learn a lot from. i hope. you too, kwong. things will surely get better.

you left the light on
theres a chance I might have tripped, girl
you were there to hold on

Strummed at 10:07 AM (x)

Bite race

Bite race
(nanyang street, anyone??)

at first it caused some confusion among my parents.

"huh...?", stares with mildly astonished look," i tot u quit byte already?"

so let me explain. 2 weeks ago, wei ming invited me to this very race, competitors mainly being people of the riverlife church in pasir ris and their friends. i was initially reluctant, but i was free, it was a holiday (after national day), and i get to meet new people.

met with some of his friends last friday at a bbq at ray's house. it was quite a gathering, about 40 people altogether. most were taking part in the race. we played icebreaker games, i had to do some simple forfeit for double wacko (just drink salt water... my partner couldn't stand it hah), and then they played some really exhibitionist basketball. which is a game i can grasp, but not something i would like to take up.

that's besides the point. their basketball was seriously pro. for me to play was to tarnish their game.

anyway, back to the story. at 9, our bite team met at riverlife church. we consisted of ming, greg, andy, jon lui and jared, all from acsi. from what we gathered from the briefing (130+ teams! siao...) the aim was, in simple terms, to use the given clues to find 4 stations aka amazing race, whence the station master would then give a task, which had to do with eating some supposedly good food. we could also complete an optional bonus if we wanted to, but we needed to be back at the church by 430 or risk dsq.

1st team back wins...


6 of them! runner up prize oso... some vouchers.

oh ya. and when we are finding the stations, can only make use of bus, mrt and our own two feet. no taxi, no mothers.

teams were also split up into different coloured groups, so different colour got different route, different four stations.

so when we started, we had to go to city plaza (short walk from paya lebar mrt), which was simple enough. other than being jacked by the team in front of us, not much trouble. each of us were blindfolded and given some artificial food to eat. i had plum - ate 3, crammed the last 3 into my mouth, and had to cough them all out in the toilet.

then things got interesting.

the next clue. it read "nanyang street".

i would just like to challenge everyone to find me an actual street sign with those exact words. because we sure couldn't find any. it wasn't in the road directory (we asked taxi drivers, mrt controllers, sisters studying at home...). nanyang ave/drive were both near boon lay, on the other side of the country. furthermore, we had been told that the race would be held between south, central and eastern parts of Singapore. you could imagine our situation.

however, this wasn't the exact place. it was just a 'clue', a tricky one at that. so i speculated that perhaps it was the name of a food place, like "mr so-and-so's nanyang street coffeeshop". we then agreed that chinatown was our best bet. even the mrt controller thought that it must be so.

at least we tried.

we actually ended up finding a station. only it wasn't our route station. lol!! damn funny, but damn frustrating.

some more, their clue super easy one. it read like this:

cow car water
(smith street)

rather simple hor.

then somebody from hq called ming to check on us. then he actually told us something quite astonishing.

nanyang street is a nickname. it is the old nickname of a certain purvis street near raffles hotel.

i mean like wtf la. even taxi driver dun know leh. how you expect us to know that sh**? anyway, everybody oso angry already, i won't say more on the wonderful committee.

so after making fruitful use of one and a half hours, we were finishing two greasy plates of chicken rice at purvis street. we actually met another team there who said they were leaving for their bonus task already.

we had much better luck with the next two stations. the first, andy lived there, simpang bedok if i'm not wrong. ate roti prata, had drinks, then the next station was 'jurong fermented toufu". after stumbling around, we also found that one, finished two plates without hands (silly rule).

by this time, it was roughly 315pm. we were thinking whether we could do the bonus and be back in time. the problem was that...

... for the bonus, we needed to travel all the way to ikea in queensway to get four dollars worth of receipt from their food court. requiring 30 min to get to redhill mrt, wait for the ever-so-slow bus 33, get the silly receipt, and get back to base by 430.

we took the risk lor. and it was cool man. the time between leaving redhill and getting back to the same mrt station was about 15 minutes. we waited only a bit for 33, then when we reached ikea, we dashed pass all the shoppers to the food court. a few of my teammates grabbed some milk cartons costing 1 dollar each (come to think of it, might expensive they were) while i queued first. we were then out and immediately caught a returning 33! lol super sia.

even then, it was a long wait getting back to the church. sprinted back, and closely made it.

now comes even more interesting stuff. there were many people already there (not very surprising - we sort of expected that), many of which hadn't done the bonus. however, some teams had done the bonus and managed to come in around 2 pm!! they even had time to go home, shower, and then come back for the results.

apparently they had very easy clues. some more, they're bonus was at tampines mall... very the far.

ok to wrap up, we obviously didn't win any sort of prize, we obviously felt cheated. (we wanted moderation!! lol) there was a lengthy, unneccessary (no offence to be taken here) service before the prizes were given out.

lessons learnt: do not trust kiasu singaporeans. cooperate, think. chou tou fu is not that bad. riverlife church is a nice building. so are its people.

there is a twang in the heart when i see christians in song worship. they were all jumping around with hands in the air. there was so much energy.

yet i still feel that there really is an empty purpose. a faith in something that can't really be felt.

dear christian friends, please do not take any insult from these last lines. they are my sincere feelings - that can't be changed. i would still very much want you guys as friends.

all in all, a long post. peace out then.

vertical horizon...

beautiful disaster...

Strummed at 9:36 PM (x)

16 shades of silver

another 16 shades of silver

band names continued:

hoobastank - interesting name... an inside joke. has no particular meaning.

incubus - the band needed to think of a name hours before their first show; they looked through a thesaurus. apparently it was chosen because they were teenagers and the definition had the word "sex" in it.

jane's addiction - another cool name.

jimmy eat world - tom linton's (guitarist) younger siblings, ed and jimmy, fought constantly when they were younger. jimmy, who was stronger and heavier, would usually win. ed, as revenge, drew with crayons a picture of Jimmy shoving the entire world into his gaping mouth with the caption, "jimmy eat world."

led zeppelin - after the who's drummer keith moon quipped that the band would go over "like a lead zeppelin".

less than jake - a ska punk band that actually use trombones and saxophones.

limp bizkit - named after the way a friend of the band described his brain after getting high.

linkin park - have to mention this one... suggested by chester because after band practice he would have to drive past lincoln park. however, the domain "lincolnpark.com" had already been taken, and to buy it from the owners cost more than the band could afford, so they misspelled it linkin park.

lostprophets - very cool.

modest mouse - very stupid.

my chemical romance - very... imaginative. felix felicis, anyone?

the nerves - one of the bands in the school of rock competition. cool eh?

our lady peace - poetic.

placebo - named after the medical treatment where a patient is told he is being given a powerful drug when it is really nothing more than a sugar pill. picture harry pretending to drop felix felicis into ron's cup before quidditch.

queens of the stone age - their producer joked that they were "like the queens of the stone age".

radiohead - so cool. i remember this person wrote in to mtv saying if he didn't hear radiohead every day, he would have a radioheadache. lol

red hot chili peppers - kinda makes you hungry eh.

savage garden - when i was younger, i thought it was sandwich garden (which is just about as nonsensical...).

story of the year - another hip name.

sugarcult

supergrass - *raises eyebrows*

switchfoot - named after a surfing term. "To switch your feet means to take a new stance facing the opposite direction. It's about change and movement, a different way of approaching life and music."

system of a down - fits together well. members are all armenians.

taking back sunday - makes you think...

tears for fears - wonderful piece of rhyming there.

third eye blind - i shall not mention what the third eye sometimes refers to.

usher - creative. sounds very hip. doesn't mean i like the music though.

velvet revolver - very cool. johan likes to draw the name in some artistic manner on his table (he doesn't actually know who they are - just likes the name).

vertical horizon - again, *ponders* so imaginative.

ok. what a very long list. i certainly enjoyed it.

just finished bite race today. that one will deserve another separate post. a. maths test tomorrow! just hope there is enough time lah... everytime also cannot finish, i think i'm just too careful with my calculations.

there was this damn hot chick in france... got her on camera...

Strummed at 10:25 PM (x)

tired.

tired. very.

this will be a fast one. i've got a soccer match to watch tonight.

list of things for laser:

powerpack
repair sail
tiller extension
cut mainsheet (shorten)
tape sharp end of trolley
hiking strap
check all parts of the boat
- screws, blocks, etc
change auto bailer

uncle foo asked if maybe i could go to australia in september (my bdae! hmph) for centralised training with manyi and some other squad. we would be like hardcore matchracing all the way la... for two weeks leh. i dunno. half of me wants to go, i haven't been overseas sailing for ages, it would surely be fun. but then, she's such a quiet girl, i don't think the words she and victoria have spoken to me can add up to more than a hundred.

it was quite a surprise anyway. first outing in a radial can have such results. requested to go with manyi some more. of course, i'm damn happy lah.

the whole day i kept having songs with the words 'radio' in them - robbie williams, jet, i even changed the words of thursday's "war all of the time" to have the word radio in them - "paris garage, listen to the lullaby". i substituted radio for lullaby lol.

i think it is related to 'radial'. haha...

no time for quirky band names. next time.

Strummed at 9:57 PM (x)

Interesting band names

Interesting band names

someone said boredom is the mother of invention.

so, following this chain of thought, the greatest ever inventors must have been the most boring people ever.

anyway, when less great inventors but slightly more interesting people try their hand at it... the result is some people playing the 'band game'.

i started this with kwong a while ago (source of boredom - school lessons). at first it was, i would write the lyrics of a song, he would write the artist, album, etc. then that was replaced by guessing who sang what song.

the most recent variation would be listing band names with numbers in them or, as i will be posting here, interesting band names. those here are either downright silly, wierd, or makes you wonder about things (which i kinda like to do).

in alphabetical order:
alien ant farm - crazy.

alter bridge - sounds like some sort of turning point. apparently the name comes from a bridge in Mark Tremonti's childhood where they were not allowed to pass, and represents a sign of enigma.

ben folds five - when ben folds (lead singer; cool name!) was asked about his band's name he jokingly responded "you mean a trio isn't five?"

black eyed peas - won't be caught dead listening to them, but still wonderfully absurd.

blur - uber cool band name, isn't it?

bowling for soup - again, absurd. apparently from some comedian's line, "bowling for shit".

busted - ... vs. bastur...

the calling - nice name.

coheed & cambria - their albums (3, with a 4th one coming) tell the story of two characters, coheed and cambria.

coldplay - huh?

death cab for cutie - named after a movie of the same name.

destiny's child - ummm, destiny has a family? wow

eminem - inevitable comparisons to mn'ms.

evanescence - means vaporisation of some sort.

five for fighting - an expression in ice hockey when a player is sent from the rink for 5 minutes by the ref for fighting.

foo fighters - used in ww2 by pilots. refers to mysterious aerial phenomena.

from autumn to ashes - sad. sounds like some sign of doom

funeral for a friend - ditto.

goo goo dolls - a personal fav. i really like the way hans used it to describe his day. to quote him, "today feels like goo goo dolls". nice.

guns n' roses - old, but still has that nice ring to it.

ok, the list goes on. more soon.

Strummed at 8:05 PM (x)